New light on an old vitamin: The role of the sunshine vitamin D in chronic disease

Excerpt

As a child, I always enjoyed consuming milk products and more so as I grew and became active in athletics. One of my dynamic trainers, Dieter Roth, was responsible for leading me and my fellow athletes into Bavarian championships. I was fortunate to never have suffered a fracture from excessive running or weight training. Perhaps my daily vitamin D consumption helped in addition to genetics. I became interested in the science of vitamin D after encountering some patients with hypercalcemia [1]. During my tenure at the University of Mississippi, one of my mentees, Dr. M. Ullah, had expressed desire to explore the field of hypertension and I recommended that he review literature on the topic vitamin D and blood pressure regulation, resulting in several publications [2‐5]. …